I feel like I have frequently missed the boat with impactful technologies. At the time of release/hype I dismissed React, Docker, Kubernetes, Rust, and more.<p>What technologies are currently coming to popularity that you are learning/keeping abreast of so you don't get left behind?
I think WebAssembly/WASI will take off if someone wraps it in a shell that supports a powerbox, with logging, debugging, and possibly undo/redo, time travel debugging, etc.<p>A way to run ANY random program from anywhere, and just give it a file in a safe and secure manner fills so many needs that most people can't even imagine right now.<p>PS: I'd have written it myself, but there's about 1000 items to check off just to get an MVP working on a PC if my survey of the standards is right. 500ish instructions, and a boatload of APIs.<p>PPS: I've looked at several implementations, but I don't have the familiarity with the languages they are written in to be able to dig deep into the guts and add the required code to turn the WebAssembly VM into a black box whos interface I can control. Thus, it seems I have to build my own 8(
I’m focusing on becoming a beast at systems design and architecture more than specific technologies. Whether that becomes some AI system or yet another glorified overly complex web application.<p>Its a much harder skill to master and more valuable imo.
Im not sure if it’s future proofing exactly, but I’m placing my bets on Nix powered development systems.<p>The conceptual clarity combined with sparse documentation, rough edged user land, and the army of edge cases give me flashes of Docker in 2013/14.<p>It’s a pain to use but the promise is there. When setup and working, Nix seems like _the_ way forward for reproducible builds and dev environments at any 20+ dev team.<p>I work in dev experience at a larger tech company. I work on many different REPLs, often jumping into unfamiliar projects- in my first three months I’ve worked on go, python, node, terraform, k8s, etc.<p>With nix I’m able to clone a repo in an ecosystem I don’t use, create a couple files (flake.nix + .envrc) and reliably create a working, isolated dev environment that works and doesn’t mess my other projects… gaming changing.<p>(Plus I took the plunge after system issues to move to a VM running NixOS, defined in my dotfile repo.)<p>The language is difficult, the documentation needs to get there, the amount of breaking or confusing api are big hurdles. I think some simple wrapper like <a href="https://devenv.sh" rel="nofollow">https://devenv.sh</a> may be what gets the industry on board.
'Distributed SQLite'.
There are so many projects to make SQLite replicable/ horizontally scaling (dqlite, rqlite, sqlfs, litestream, ...), there must be a great need for a simple to administer SQL DB with more horses than the single node SQLite.
AI/ML. We can argue what AI/ML really is capable of, but one thing for sure, with current market condition, I only see companies spend more money on AI/ML infrastructure than ever before. My company is putting ton of money into that space. I was planning on doing SICP and Crafting Interpreter this year, but I just might switch over to AI/ML study just to make sure I'm in the conversation for my future.<p>Another no so popular take, BlockChain/Ledger type technology in traditional financial market will see an uptick in activities.2
CUE ( <a href="https://cuelang.org" rel="nofollow">https://cuelang.org</a> | <a href="https://cuetorials.com" rel="nofollow">https://cuetorials.com</a> ) Configure, Unify, Execute.<p>I'm building <a href="https://github.com/hofstadter-io/hof">https://github.com/hofstadter-io/hof</a> on top of it. I also use it a lot in CI / cloud related things. Tamed the monorepo with CUE too
Old warm C :))))<p>Joking. In reality, Python and React working well, but sometimes i write chunks of C code for performance critical things, and in some cases have to use jquery, because old browsers.<p>And K8s and Docker will definitely live long, because good market fit.<p>For Rust, I'm not sure. For me it is not mature enough, so if will learn just now, in half year will need to learn new version.